On 13 October 2020 China was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council – the 47 state body responsible for the protection of human rights globally. Since that election day the International Observatory of Human Rights has documented the human rights violations that have occured in the run up to China’s representative taking their seat on the council on 1 January 2021.
On Friday 18 December 2020, we documented the 100th human rights violation committed by the Chinese regime since its election to the Council 66 days ago. China has persistently targeted religious groups, legal representatives and academic freedom, cracked down on civil society, infringed Hong Kong’s freedom and regardless of international outrage, continued to commit atrocities against its Uyghur muslim and other minority populations.
Valerie Peay, Director of the International Observatory of Human Rights, described the study
“China, like all 47 members of the Human Rights Council, must uphold and be held to the highest standards to protect and nurture human rights and the treaties that underpin their success. So far China has shown no sign of abating its abhorrent actions. The international community and the UN have the opportunity to highlight their actions and hold them accountable.”
Civil Society
Of the first 100 violations recorded, 26 can be categorised as violations infringing on a healthy civil society; cracking down on lawyers and activists, consolidating power through anti-democratic means, forcing confessions and arbitrarily detaining critics of the regime.
In October, the Citizen Power for China Initiative reported that President Xi was purging officials and replacing them with those who would help him consolidate his power. This included replacing the presidents of the People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency, the two major mouthpieces of the Chinese Communist Party. Six local officials took up new positions in the first 20 days of October and perhaps most notably, many high ranking officials were dismissed before the fifth plenary session – including Dong Hong who was once once the Secretary of Bo Yibo and was a veteran of the Communist Party of China.
The Chinese regime has consistently targeted lawyers, especially those practising in human rights. On 1 November 2020, human rights lawyer Chang Weiping was arrested six days after speaking publicly about the torture he was subjected to at the hands of local police in January 2020.
One month later, on 4 December 2020, his family were threatened and warned to keep quiet after publicly expressing their concerns about his deteriorating condition.
On 10 December 2020, Human Rights Day, several Chinese activists and human rights lawyers were forcibly confined to their homes. Among those implicated were human rights lawyers Wang Quanzhang and Yu Wensheng, who claimed the authorities had imposed the restriction order to ensure they would not voice their criticisms of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
China, in an apparent show of defiance, also chose Human Rights Day to hold the trial of Hao Jinsong. Hao is a human rights lawyer known for criticising China’s rule of law and going after corruption.
Despite claims that China is a “socialist democracy”, in December the Civicus Monitor ranked China as a “closed” country – a country where state actors routinely imprison, injure and kill people for attempting to exercise their rights – China rejected a UN vote against the death penalty in November.
On 17 December 2020, prominent rights activist Ou Biaofeng was taken from his home and detained after he helped to publicise the story of Dong Yaoqiong, a woman sent to a psychiatric hospital for splashing ink on a poster of ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping in a Twitter livestream.
A Guardian article in December stated China was using the pandemic as a pretext to curtail civil rights, including the mass expansion of their surveillance industry and had taken monitoring measures “far beyond what is acceptable under international human rights law.”
China will officially take it’s seat on the Human Rights Council on 1 January 2021. What will it’s new year’s resolution be?